National Union Party (Rainier)
|position = |youth_wing = Young Nationals |colours = Green |international = Pan-American Reform Union |seats1_title = House of Councillors |seats1 = |seats2_title = House of Senators |seats2 = |seats3_title = American Parliament |seats3 = }} The National Union Party ( : Plaid Undeb Cenedlaethol) abbreviated to NUP (PUC) is a Rainian political party. Founded by Llewelyn Rhodes it has consistently been the dominant party within the parliament and is one of the oldest political parties in the world. It generally follows policies. The NUP was founded in 1859 and dominated Rainian politics in its early years. Between the 1850's-1950's the party largely alternated in power with the Radical Liberal and Labour Parties, with its most dominant leaders being Carter Rhodes (president between 1859-94) and Dominic Lennox (president between 1950-63). Following the 1966 military coup the party was banned, but reconfigured in 1993 after the fall of the military regime where it dominated the most military parliament. In 2015 the NUP's presidential candidate Diane Hall won the Rainian presidency in a run-off with Conservative candidate Peter Faulkner, being the first RNUP candidate to be elected president since 1958. History Historical Context Formation Ideology The NUP officially names itself as adhering to , but has been described as being traditionally ideologically heterogeneous throughout its history. Political scientist John Anderson describes the NUP as a "fairly classic catch-all populist party with no clear policies, being able to adeptly shift from to relatively easily". Never the less, the NUP have traditionally been identified with centrist economic and policies alongside support for and the maintenance of Anglican Rainian culture. When founded in 1859 the NUP largely supported the policies of its founder and leader Llewelyn Rhodes, who favoured , and . Rhodes also was a committed , mandating membership to the Anglican Church of Rainier and later became a . During the 1890's the NUP became more of a party supporting and through whilst maintaining links to Rainier's rural heartlands, the Rainian Church and the giving them strong support from most social classes, being associated with and populism compared to their rivals the Radical Liberal Party who were more committed to small-state . The rise of the social democratic Labour Party in the 1920's-40's resulted in the NUP in 1946 under the leadership of Dominic Lennox to become less ideologically heterogeneous, soon defining itself as a moderate, one-nation conservative alternative to Labour social democracy and Radical Liberal classical liberalism. As such throughout the 1950's-70's the NUP became associated with a that championed and pragmatic social policies, whilst being and . The NUP today continues to identify as one-nation conservative, and is described as conforming to right-of-centre policies, being compared to the and in their largely non-ideological approach to politics. The NUP have most often advocated for populist policies, although in recent years they have become more hawkish on foreign policy. Currently the party is split between those who advocate Keynesian economics (the left of the party, known as the or the ) those who favour and a foreign policy (the , or the ) and those who favour (the ). Election results Presidential elections since 1933 Legislative elections Leaders Category:Political parties Category:Rainier